Marco McMillian, a mayoral candidate in Clarksdale, Miss., was found dead Wednesday, the victim of an apparent homicide.

McMillian’s body was found about 8:30 a.m. by the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department at the base of the Mississippi River levee near the communities of Sherad and Rena Lara in the southwestern section of the county, about 15 miles from Clarksdale.

He had been reported missing Tuesday.

A cause of death was not released, and his body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Jackson for an autopsy.

Authorities did not confirm until a 3 p.m. news conference that the body found was McMillian, and that they are investigating his death as a homicide.

Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Will Rooker said in a news release that authorities have a suspect, but the man had not been charged late Wednesday.

Clarksdale mayoral candidate Marco McMillian, found dead last week along the Mississippi River levee, was beaten, dragged and set on fire, according to his family in a statement released Monday.

“We know that Marco was brutally murdered. His body was found on Wednesday, February 26, 2013, beaten, dragged and burned (set afire),” his family said in an email released through his campaign manager Jarod Keith. “This was reported in our meeting with the local coroner on two occasions. We were informed that the official autopsy report could take two to four weeks to complete.

“We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found. Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner.”

I look at lynching as a mob action (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lynch ). As far as I can tell that's not what happened. It was very brutal though. Whatever the reason was there was a lot of venom associated with it. Looks like some emotion was involved. Anger.

Well, I believe that I must tell the truthAnd say things as they really areBut if I told the truth and nothing but the truthCould I ever be a star?Deep Purple: No One Came

Skjellyfetti wrote:Don't see why that matters? If I said he was lynched because he was black... that would be one thing. But, he was lynched because he was gay. What the **** does the (alleged) murderer's race matter?

You assume he was killed because he was gay. Do you have proof?

If you have no proof, you are guilty of being a prick that fits paranoid stories into your bigoted mind.

Furthermore, is it more a tragedy if the guy was killed because he was gay? I mean, a person was killed, but it only makes your news because...why?

What if a person is killed because they are wearing a nice watch or because they are blonde, tall, fat, lost in the wrong neighborhood, etc.? Not good enough reasons to warrant a thread from you?

Well...let's be honest. If you had to bet, how would you bet? Me, I'd bet that his being homosexual was a factor in some way in what happened. Could've been because somebody doesn't like homosexuals. Could be because the guy that killed him is a homosexual too and there was some kind of crime of passion thing involved. But if I had to bet I'd bet that him being homosexual had something to do with it.

No, we don't know at this point. But, I mean, that has all the earmarks of being a very emotional murder.

Well, I believe that I must tell the truthAnd say things as they really areBut if I told the truth and nothing but the truthCould I ever be a star?Deep Purple: No One Came

Well...let's be honest. If you had to bet, how would you bet? Me, I'd bet that his being homosexual was a factor in some way in what happened. Could've been because somebody doesn't like homosexuals. Could be because the guy that killed him is a homosexual too and there was some kind of crime of passion thing involved. But if I had to bet I'd bet that him being homosexual had something to do with it.

No, we don't know at this point. But, I mean, that has all the earmarks of being a very emotional murder.

I have worked several crime scenes involving domestic violence between gay guys. None of them were pretty.

JohnStOnge wrote:Well...let's be honest. If you had to bet, how would you bet? Me, I'd bet that his being homosexual was a factor in some way in what happened. Could've been because somebody doesn't like homosexuals. Could be because the guy that killed him is a homosexual too and there was some kind of crime of passion thing involved. But if I had to bet I'd bet that him being homosexual had something to do with it.

No, we don't know at this point. But, I mean, that has all the earmarks of being a very emotional murder.

I have worked several crime scenes involving domestic violence between gay guys. None of them were pretty.